Cabaret (film)
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Cabaret is a 1972 film. It was directed by Bob Fosse and it stars Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey. The film is set in Berlin during the Weimar Republic prior to the coming to power of the Nazis under Adolf Hitler in the early 1930s.
The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
It is based loosely on the 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret by Kander and Ebb, which was in turn based in part on the Berlin stories of Christopher Isherwood. It alters the plot of the stage version considerably, making it much more risqué and hard-hitting. Only a few numbers from the stage score are used, but the new songs are also written by Kander and Ebb. And while nearly all the characters in the show sing, in the traditional manner of Broadway musicals - which has characters bursting into song anytime, anywhere - the film confines its musical numbers to the stage of the cabaret and to a beer garden. Aside from a chorus in the beer garden scene, only two of the film's major characters sing any songs. The film version of "Cabaret" is one of the few musicals considered much superior to its stage original.
The film is largely made in low light and has a film noir feel, although it was filmed in color.
Story line
-->Sally Bowles is an American singer at the Kit Kat night club in early 1930s Berlin. A new tenant, Brian Roberts, moves into a room in Sally's apartment building. A reserved English academic and writer, Brian gives English lessons to earn a living while completing his German studies. She unsuccessfully tries to seduce him and suspects he may be gay. Brian tells her that he has indeed tried to have romantic relationships with women, all of which have failed. They become friends, and Brian is witness to Sally's anarchic, bohemian life in the last days of the German Weimar Republic. The Nazis' violent rise to power is a powerful, ever-present undercurrent in the film. Though explicit evidence of their actions are only sporatically presented, one can track their progress through the changing actions and attitudes of the major and minor characters. While in the beginning of the film Nazis are sometimes harrassed, towards the end a chilling scene is presented where everyday Germans rise in song to rally around Nazism. Although the songs allude to and advance the narrative of the film, every song except "Tomorrow belongs to me" is executed in the context of a Kit Kat Club stage performance. The realism and seriousness of the movie is enhanced by limiting the musical numbers to the club stage instead of having characters burst into song. Despite her earlier reservations, Sally and Brian eventually become lovers, and Brian concludes with irony that his previous failures with women were because they were "the wrong three girls".
-->Sally befriends a rich playboy baron named Maximilian von Heune, who takes them to his country estate. It becomes ambiguous over which of the duo Max is seducing, which is epitomized by a central scene in which the three dance intimately together in a wine-induced reverie. Max eventually loses interest with the two, and leaves them back in Berlin. It is then revealed that he had slept with not only Sally, but Brian as well. After the ensuing argument, Brian storms off and picks a fight with a group of Nazis, who proceed to beat him senseless. Brian and Sally make up in the hospital, where Sally reveals that Max has left them an envelope of money. Later on, Sally finds out that she's pregnant and she's unsure of whether Brian or Max is the father. Brian offers to marry her and take her back to his university life in Cambridge. Sally realizes they could never coexist in such a life, and goes ahead with a planned abortion. The film ends with Brian departing for England by train, and Sally continuing her life in Berlin. The club's master of ceremonies is seen only in his stage persona, but provides repeated knowing looks to the camera that the party is about to end.
A subplot concerns a Jewish man, who had been passing as a Christian, who falls for and marries a wealthy Jewish heiress. We are left wondering what their fate will be.
The Score
- Wilkommen - performed by the Emcee and the Cabaret Girls
- Mein Herr - performed by Sally Bowles
- Two Ladies - performed by the Emcee and the Cabaret Girls
- Maybe This Time - performed by Sally Bowles
- Tiller Girls - performed by the Emcee and the Cabaret Girls
- Money, Money - performed by the Emcee and Sally Bowles
- If You Could See Her - performed by the Emcee and someone in a gorilla suit
- Tomorrow Belongs To Me - performed by one of the Hitler Youth
- (Life is a) Cabaret - performed by Sally Bowles
Books that inspired the film
- The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood 1945
- Sally Bowles by Christopher Isherwood 1937
- The Berlin of Sally Bowles by Christopher Isherwood 1975
See also
External links
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